These easy, three-ingredient bakery-style Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter cookies will knock your socks off! Crispy edges, soft centers, and heavy on the peanut butter please.
Truth: I was thisclose to not posting this recipe. But my my deep and abiding love for these peanut buttery cookies trumped my hesitation, and here we are ????.
Let’s go ahead and take care of the elephant in the room: these cookies are not pretty. They’re not sexy. You’ll find no shiny, melting pools of chocolate here. They aren’t thick and fluffy. You intentionally overbake, and they are irregularly shaped. And guess what else?
These cookies are not even made from scratch.
I know. ????
Still with me?
Good. Because these cookies are going to knock your socks off. I promise.
How This All Started
My mom and I visit a nearby deli for lunch pretty often. And by “pretty often,” I mean 4 or 5 days a week. It’s a problem, really. We’re addicted to the sweet potato fries (omg). But I could really close my eyes and point to just about anything on the menu and know I’ll like it. It’s that kind of place. I could eat their chicken salad all day long and be so happy.
In addition to their sandwiches of all sorts, this deli has a fully stocked case of baked goods at the check out. And on top of the case, they haphazardly strew these saran-wrapped GINORMOUS peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.
These cookies are thin and crispy around the edges. And they have this thick, luscious swirl of peanut butter that winds all the way through the cookie. They top theirs with Reese’s Pieces (which I actually prefer), but I used M&MS in this post so I could use Valentine’s colored candy (priorities people!).
And Then…
When I was pregnant (and for a while after), I picked up one of these cookies every visit. I’d wait until I got in my car to break off a piece, thinking I could just eat a little bit and save the rest for later.
After one bite, I just can’t control myself. They are SO GOOD!
I spent weeks trying to work out the logistics of how I could replicate the cookie at home. How do you get that thick peanut butter swirl and layer on top? I toyed with a few ideas, none of which were very promising, before finally asking the cashier at the deli about who made their cookies (they have an outside vendor for most of the baked goods).
Now, I was prepared to hunt down this baker and beg for her peanut butter swirling secrets. As it turned out, no begging required. According to the cashier, the cookies are made in house and that the recipe is as simple as this:
“We just smush three chocolate chip cookies together, spread peanut butter on top, and stick some Reese’s Pieces on top of that.”
She was right– it was that easy. It only took me one try to make an exact duplicate at home (so dangerous). I used frozen cookie dough, since I was pretty confident they weren’t making dough from scratch there at the deli. And then I spread on the peanut butter and candy, just like she said, and VOILA! My favorite cookie made right in my kitchen.
Easy peasy.
So there you have it– it’s not elegant, and it’s certainly no culinary feat whatsoever. But, frozen cookie dough and all, it’s one seriously good cookie.
